[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 17 (Thursday, January 28, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E62]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RECOGNIZING DR. WILLIE BRYANT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NITA M. LOWEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 28, 2016

  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Willie Bryant, 
of Spring Valley, NY, a dentist and Hudson Valley civil rights activist 
for nearly a half-century, who passed away December 28, 2015, at the 
age of 77.
  A lifelong NAACP member, Dr. Bryant was active with the Rockland 
Human Rights Commission and helped create the Spring Valley NAACP Life 
Membership Program. Dr. Bryant also helped form the Rockland Employees 
Federal Credit Union, a non-profit group that provided low-interest 
loans to people who worked at the Rockland Psychiatric Center and in 
county government. Dr. Bryant also spearheaded the successful effort to 
have a statue of United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall 
placed on the front lawn of the former Hillburn Main School, which was 
integrated following then-NAACP attorney Marshall's appeal to the New 
York State Commissioner of Education in 1943.
  Dr. Bryant attended Florida A&M University, graduating in 1961, and 
then Howard University School of Dentistry. He remained active in both 
universities' alumni associations, serving as President of the Florida 
A&M Ossining (NY) alumni branch, where he started a sickle-cell anemia 
screening project that reached more than 1,200 people. Dr. Bryant 
interned at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Philadelphia and 
joined the dental staff of the FDR Veterans Administration Hospital in 
Montrose, NY, in 1969. In 1982, Dr. Bryant began serving as the 
Director of Dental Services at Letchworth Village, a residential 
facility for people with physical and mental disabilities in Thiells, 
NY. Dr. Bryant often said providing dental care for the developmentally 
disabled population was his biggest achievement and his most rewarding 
experience.
  Dr. Bryant was honored many times throughout his career. He received 
the 2003 ``Volunteer Beyond Excellence'' Award from the New York Organ 
Donor Network for promoting organ and tissue donation. He was named 
Rockland's Alpha Man of the Year in 2004 and was awarded the Rockland 
Buffalo Soldiers' Award in 2006. Dr. Bryant was a 2008 inductee into 
the Rockland County Human Rights/Civil Rights Hall of Fame for his 
efforts to help people attain justice and equal treatment under the 
law. In 2012 he was named one of Florida A&M's Outstanding Alumni of 
the Quasquicentennial and was honored by the Howard University Alumni 
Club of Westchester and Rockland.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to recognize my constituent, Dr. Willie 
Bryant. I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring his exceptional 
life of service.

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